Sunday, October 15, 2006

Unsurprising First BCS Rankings:Ohio St, USC are 1-2

Biggest surprise of the first BCS rankings? What a boost Auburn got from beating Florida: No. 4, behind Ohio St, USC and Michigan in that order.

No surprise: Ohio St and USC seemingly control their own destiny. Win out and find a spot in the BCS title game. Of course, Ohio St has to get through Michigan and USC has to get past Cal, Oregon AND Notre Dame.

Biggest screw-job? West Virginia, unbeaten and ranked all of No. 5, behind one-loss Auburn and ahead of one-loss Florida. Even if they run the table, how is West Virginia expected to climb over a one-loss team if they're not even above them right now?

(Actually, that probably has everything to do with Auburn's tough strength of schedule and WVA's...well, not. A WVA win over L'ville combined with an unbeaten season should help their cause... but will it be enough?)

Other observations:

Everyone seems to think Texas is so great, yet the BCS ranking has them 9th, barely fending off Cal and Tennessee, and only the fourth-best one-loss team. Translation? Don't expect Texas to jump all of them to get a rematch with Ohio St in the BCS title game.

Got to love Boise St and Rutgers at No. 15 and No. 16., better than their human poll standings right now.

And perhaps the biggest shocker of all? Tulsa (5-1) at No. 25. 33rd in the Harris poll. Unranked in the coaches' poll. Yet so beloved by the computers as to vault them, at the very least, into the only Top 25 that matters for now. I love it.

13 comments:

outside of the top 10 doesn't matter in the BCS if I recall correctly.

When was the last time a team outside of the initial top 10 rankings made it to the NC? Has it happened?

I could really care less about Tulsa at 25, unless it is symptomatic of a larger problem with the computer polls.

What concerns me is ND lurking in 8th. USC being the only team left on their schedule that can give them trouble, and we have all written off the Trojans as being overrated and possibly losing to ND (I would say probably, but the game is in SoCal).

If the Big East beats up on one another and OSU beats Michigan, then ND could wind up in the desert. Of course we know how that story goes from last year.

How the HELL is OSU third in the computer polls?

How the hell can the "coaches" (read, S.I.D.'s) poll honestly vote USC @ 2? Where is the east coast bias I always hear about?

Have I mentioned I love the BCS? Well, I love the BCS. Sure looks to me like if USC manages to lose, and the Gators manage to win out, a spot in the title game would be well within reach. I love the computers, all not taking when you lost into account. Hurray feelingless, godless counting machines!

If Rutgers has a perfect season, i.e beats Pitt, Louisville and West Virginia are they just as likely to be number 2 as West Virginia or Louisville doing the same thing? My guess is no, and I will not lose sleep over it because as a RU fan I will be happy with 9-3, a very reachable goal at this point.

I really wanted to say the chances have to be similar. The computers are treating Rutgers better than the idiots... errr, people; and the people have been ignoring the struggles of WVa all year and keeping them in the top 5, so they'll have to give Rutgers some credit if they take down the Mountaineers, to say nothing of Louisville (after Louisville sends WVa packing).

Meanwhile, the only way Louisville or WVa gets into the 2-spot is with a USC loss (plus, the UM-OSU loser has to fall more than a spot).

However, I notice that the computers like Auburn and Florida a whole lot more than they like the Knights. Maybe (obviously) Rutgers's strength of schedule will pick up in the next month, but at this point it looks like the SEC teams are much more in control of their own destinies.

Here's what I don't get....what is the voter/computer fascination with the SEC? I did a brief review of the schedules of the top teams in the SEC and found the most impressive win out-of-conference was Washington State. Washington State? Throw in the USC beatdown of Arkansas and maybe the SEC isn't as good as everyone thinks.

Boise State wouldn't be a .500 team if they were in the SEC. Seriously, they had a home game for a bowl last year, and lost to the 4th best team in the ACC in BC. For some reason people just like the blue turf... most people who tout them and like them have probably never even seen them play.

I agree with your basic point about the SEC, however Tennesee beat California as well. But the SEC whines about the BCS and how tough the SEC is and then never plays big games against the Big Ten or Big 12.

Connect With Me

Quickish

About This Blog

DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.